I know I'm not the only one who does this but I'd though it would be cool for us to share our personal experiences pertaining to running a Commander group in your house.
What's your play night look like? How many players? Is it enough, not enough or too much? Are you guys fiercely competitive or pretty laid back? Do you have drinks or eat dinner together? What are the challenges of running it out of your home? Do you rotate between places? Are your wife and/or kids distracting or part of the fun? What else do you do? I'm just curious to here about what other members are doing here. Maybe even looking for ideas :).
My story is spoilered below, because frankly it is tl;dr territory and I care more about what you guys have to say. But if you want to read it, it's there.
I have 3 other guys, all 20-somethings like me though I'm the oldest by a couple years, who are good for pretty much every week. We meet up either Friday evenings or Saturday afternoons. First thing's first- we go downstairs to the gaming/big TV room and warm up with some Project M. Not so secretly, this is actually my favorite part of the night and I could probably just play this for 10 hours straight. But I digress. Anyway, after we get all pumped beating each other up we go to a sub-basement with a card table and chairs, get settled in, flip up the iPad life counter and turn on some Pandora (Hans Zimmer-type stuff for the mood). Oh, everyone will grab drinks too. I don't drink (apple juice 4 lyfe), but the guys will bring beers and occasionally I'll cook dinner for everyone since they're spending the gas to come out to my place. Ribs or pasta or something. I haven't done that in a while but I won't be lazy forever.
Anyway, GAMES. Trade a little and then get busy! Anywhere from 2 to 4 games go by. Games are typically pretty lighthearted affairs but sometimes we do get a little into it. The meta is broken down below, but it's kind of boring:
TK rocks a Yeva Primal Surge and a Thrax control change-of-pace deck. Yeva tends to dominate the focus of all her games- either she is an immediate threat and is dealt with, or she durdles a bit and Greater Goods her way into utter destruction.
C is a Dimir agent or something and has finally got off of his creen crutch and ditched Mimeoplasm for Wrexial. Doran voltron changes the pace.
Then F is a builder and like-minded rules lawyer, and rocks something new probably every two weeks. He's between Aurelia Voltron and BG Glissa grind-you-out artifact shenanigans. His collection is large and old as well so he often surprises us with expensive and/or pimped out cards.
I'm the resident blue mage with primarily Tibor and Lumia spellslinger, working on making my turns last less than 5 minutes. Also have WG Trostani Enchantress as a change-of-pace deck and RUG Unexpected Results.dec. for laughs. But tonight I'm gonna whip out my first Stax deck ever (Thada Adel) and we'll see how that goes. I've wanted to punish Ramp McStompy decks for a while and I will finally get the chance.
ANYWAY, we are pretty loose. We're really just in it for the laughs and the beatdowns. We let people "tap their mana right", verbally note the presence of multiple triggers so they can stack them optimally, anything that doesn't screw up anyone else really is fair game. We are sticky on a couple things though... for instance we have stopped allowing missable beneficial triggers (Mind's Eye, etc) to be backsied though because seriously, pay attention or don't play the card. Also we have no issues with proxies if you either A) have a copy of the card in another deck, B) are testing a card, or C) have it in the mail. We have a lot of fun playing the games and I generally look forward to this all week.
All the while I have my wife and my two lovely children, both under the age of two, usually upstairs hanging out together. Often I'll take the boy, who's 3 months, and put him on my lap for Smash or for Magic. Lots of times he falls asleep sitting on my leg during games and I have to cart him up to a crib to save his poor neck. Sometimes when my daughter (16 months) is acting up I'll give her a Wii controller, not plugged in obviously, and let her "play" smash with us. I can't give her cards yet because she eats them and I'm fairly sure kids shouldn't be ingesting copious amounts of ink, although I'm sure the fiber isn't bad :). My kids are wonderful but I do really enjoy this time to not worry so much about them and just let loose once a week. As a dad of 2 young ones you learn to appreciate it when your wife says, "I'll take the kids"!
Otherwise that's pretty much it. After Magic, sometimes we play more Smash or put on a movie on if we're petered out. Sometimes my wife makes brownies or cookies just to keep the baking skills fresh and we pretty much destroy those. Everyone leaves somewhere between 1 and 3am. I get a few hours of sleep and it's back to dad-town the next day.
If I had to change anything I would like to be less lazy and have dinner prepped every weekend. It's really the least I can do for having everyone drive a half-hour out to my place in the middle of nowhere for the games. I'd also like to get my wife involved in the games more but the fact is someone has to be with the kids so she's a casualty of the war of raising children sometimes. She takes it in stride though and I'm intensely grateful for it.
Me and anywhere from 2-5 of my other friends meet saturday and sunday usually. Our decks always change, but we have the resident try hards and such, and the "bads." We usually play a few games, go get some food, resume till the wee hours of the morning. We usually tear each other apart verbally, but it all ends up working out.
My normal group consists of my wife and I, her cousin, his fiance, and our upstairs neighbor. I am currently running 5 color combo slivers, my wife has a nasty Kaalia deck, she loves playing with all the angels we've aquired, her cousin runs Niv-Mizzet counter/redirect/combo shenanigans, and his fiance rocks a G/W Saffi deck. We also have a pretty formidable mono green deck put together from both of our collections to use in case we get tired of ours for the moment. We have only been playing commander a couple months now, though, so hopefully we can get some more decks built. We are having a blast with them so far!
Hmm. We play at my friends house. 4 of use together (But usually only 3 at a time.)
Anyway we are fairly aid back. We hear the commotion upstairs (Either my buddy's Mom yelling, or his sister yelling at her husband who is one of the 4 players.)
Anyway we are fairly laid back, we have drinks (Soda as I am always driving) and we laugh. The game is always fun and when we have 4 of us it is the most fun.
I usually win. Having 2 Very competitive decks, 3 casual Competitive and one brand new one (as of march 7th) so i don't know its competitive level yet. a Few games should show it soon.
anyway, I often led out my decks and we play with each other's decks to have fun. The host's decks are casual comeptative and my other friend, he has two very strong decks, and the Brother in law. He borrows my Goblins all the time.
so it is a casual night of gaming where we play a few games and have fun. Its a lot more relaxed than the games at the local game store where they have win turn 2 decks. The fasted win i can get is turn 3 arcum with a god hand. (I am planing to add a bit more artifact ramp and try making it faster.
I have a game almost every Saturday night at 8:00pm. It ebbs and flows as far as attendance but it's anywhere from 5 to 15 people. 8 is normal.
The decks tend to be pretty "cutthroat" and "100 card Legacy" style decks, but it's still a really casual group. It's more about hanging out and talking than the game really.
Since I have a limited number of Magic playing friends (two others), and we have tight schedules, we usually have a general "Magic Night" once a week. Someone will bring beers, we'll smoke and listen to a few records while we warm up with a few games of pauper, maybe test out our newest casual decks.
Then we bring out our EDH decks and move from my rug to the dining room table where there's more space. Dan is the most intuitive deck builder and usually has fantastically synergetic decks. my roommate logan is just in it for the socializing and builds Timmy-Stomp decks out of the cards I'm not using.
We're very casual and often run a few random Un-cards in our decks.
My most recent Nicol Bolas deck has actually proven to be pretty powerful, and now I'm working on a Genju of the Realms deck that was approved my playgroup.
What's your play night look like? How many players? Is it enough, not enough or too much? Are you guys fiercely competitive or pretty laid back? Do you have drinks or eat dinner together? What are the challenges of running it out of your home? Do you rotate between places? Are your wife and/or kids distracting or part of the fun? What else do you do? I'm just curious to here about what other members are doing here. Maybe even looking for ideas :).
My story is spoilered below, because frankly it is tl;dr territory and I care more about what you guys have to say. But if you want to read it, it's there.
Anyway, GAMES. Trade a little and then get busy! Anywhere from 2 to 4 games go by. Games are typically pretty lighthearted affairs but sometimes we do get a little into it. The meta is broken down below, but it's kind of boring:
C is a Dimir agent or something and has finally got off of his creen crutch and ditched Mimeoplasm for Wrexial. Doran voltron changes the pace.
Then F is a builder and like-minded rules lawyer, and rocks something new probably every two weeks. He's between Aurelia Voltron and BG Glissa grind-you-out artifact shenanigans. His collection is large and old as well so he often surprises us with expensive and/or pimped out cards.
I'm the resident blue mage with primarily Tibor and Lumia spellslinger, working on making my turns last less than 5 minutes. Also have WG Trostani Enchantress as a change-of-pace deck and RUG Unexpected Results.dec. for laughs. But tonight I'm gonna whip out my first Stax deck ever (Thada Adel) and we'll see how that goes. I've wanted to punish Ramp McStompy decks for a while and I will finally get the chance.
All the while I have my wife and my two lovely children, both under the age of two, usually upstairs hanging out together. Often I'll take the boy, who's 3 months, and put him on my lap for Smash or for Magic. Lots of times he falls asleep sitting on my leg during games and I have to cart him up to a crib to save his poor neck. Sometimes when my daughter (16 months) is acting up I'll give her a Wii controller, not plugged in obviously, and let her "play" smash with us. I can't give her cards yet because she eats them and I'm fairly sure kids shouldn't be ingesting copious amounts of ink, although I'm sure the fiber isn't bad :). My kids are wonderful but I do really enjoy this time to not worry so much about them and just let loose once a week. As a dad of 2 young ones you learn to appreciate it when your wife says, "I'll take the kids"!
Otherwise that's pretty much it. After Magic, sometimes we play more Smash or put on a movie on if we're petered out. Sometimes my wife makes brownies or cookies just to keep the baking skills fresh and we pretty much destroy those. Everyone leaves somewhere between 1 and 3am. I get a few hours of sleep and it's back to dad-town the next day.
If I had to change anything I would like to be less lazy and have dinner prepped every weekend. It's really the least I can do for having everyone drive a half-hour out to my place in the middle of nowhere for the games. I'd also like to get my wife involved in the games more but the fact is someone has to be with the kids so she's a casualty of the war of raising children sometimes. She takes it in stride though and I'm intensely grateful for it.
:symu::symr: Melek WheelStorm
:symw::symg: Trostani Enchantress (updated 6/5)
:symg::symr::symu: Unexpected Results.dec
Thada Adel Stax WIP
Me and anywhere from 2-5 of my other friends meet saturday and sunday usually. Our decks always change, but we have the resident try hards and such, and the "bads." We usually play a few games, go get some food, resume till the wee hours of the morning. We usually tear each other apart verbally, but it all ends up working out.
Signature and Avatar by Inkfox Aesthetics
Anyway we are fairly aid back. We hear the commotion upstairs (Either my buddy's Mom yelling, or his sister yelling at her husband who is one of the 4 players.)
Anyway we are fairly laid back, we have drinks (Soda as I am always driving) and we laugh. The game is always fun and when we have 4 of us it is the most fun.
I usually win. Having 2 Very competitive decks, 3 casual Competitive and one brand new one (as of march 7th) so i don't know its competitive level yet. a Few games should show it soon.
anyway, I often led out my decks and we play with each other's decks to have fun. The host's decks are casual comeptative and my other friend, he has two very strong decks, and the Brother in law. He borrows my Goblins all the time.
so it is a casual night of gaming where we play a few games and have fun. Its a lot more relaxed than the games at the local game store where they have win turn 2 decks. The fasted win i can get is turn 3 arcum with a god hand. (I am planing to add a bit more artifact ramp and try making it faster.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
The decks tend to be pretty "cutthroat" and "100 card Legacy" style decks, but it's still a really casual group. It's more about hanging out and talking than the game really.
WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.
Then we bring out our EDH decks and move from my rug to the dining room table where there's more space. Dan is the most intuitive deck builder and usually has fantastically synergetic decks. my roommate logan is just in it for the socializing and builds Timmy-Stomp decks out of the cards I'm not using.
We're very casual and often run a few random Un-cards in our decks.
My most recent Nicol Bolas deck has actually proven to be pretty powerful, and now I'm working on a Genju of the Realms deck that was approved my playgroup.
GWUBRDraft my Old Border Nostalgia Cube! and/or The Little Pauper Cube That Could!RBUWG
Modern:WDeath & TaxesW | RUGRUG DelverRUG